Copper producer Antamina has been fined for a toxic spill that left hundreds needing medical treatment. Critics have condemned the US$77,000 penalty as extremely low by international standards. Antamina is the world’s third largest copper producer, owned by...
European NGOs have released a human rights impact assessment on Glencore Xstrata’s Tampakan project. It stresses that the company has shown “insufficient respect for the rights of the affected population”. As one representative notes, “a mix of...
Deep sea miner Nautilus Minerals held its shareholder meeting last week in Toronto, Canada and was questioned by concerned citizens from Papua New Guinea, Canada and Australia about the viability and environmental risks of the company’s controversial plan to build the...
Oxford City Council declared itself a ‘Tar-Free City‘ by voting in favour of a motion (see below) tabled by Green Party councillor Sam Hollick. This makes Oxford the first city in Europe to reject the use of highly-polluting tar sands oil, by adjusting the policies...
Rio Tinto has backflipped on plans to retain its troubled Mozambique coalmines and is seeking to sell part or all of the assets amid growing political turmoil in the region and the need to develop a long-term infrastructure solution. Rio has met with a number of...
The lump of copper ore beneath the brown scrub and sand of Mongolia’s Gobi desert is about the size of Manhattan and contains enough of the metal to meet world demand for two years. Rio Tinto recently postponed the scheduled first shipment from the US$6.6-billion...
Mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia will resume operations in its open-pit with government permission after being idle for more than a month following a fatal tunnel collapse. The investigators, however, are yet to allow the company to restart underground operations. A...
A $4.7-billion bid by the founders of ENRC to buy out the Kazakh miner has gained the support of top shareholder Kazakhmys, paving the way for them to take the company private after almost six turbulent years. ENRC’s three founders, Alexander Machkevitch, Alijan...
Barrick is a Canadian company in which there is major British investment (see http://moneytometal.org/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=Barrick&go=Go). Barrick’s Pascua Lama could wind up costing US$10bn, analyst says Canadian Barrick Gold’s...
For the past three years Ierissos in Greece has been at the centre of an increasingly bitter dispute. Its inhabitants, hitherto more accustomed to farming, fishing, or running hotels, have been condemned as subversives at the highest level of government, and they have...
Over sixty prominent Australians have initiated an open letter to the country’s biggest four banks, calling for an end to investments in the fossil fuel industry and the beginnings of divestment from the sector, in order to avoid runaway climate change. Among...
The World Bank plans to restrict its financing of coal-fired power plants to “rare circumstances,” according to a draft strategy that reflects the lender’s increased focus on mitigating the effects of climate change. The Washington-based lender will help countries...
